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[grego109]

Hello, I am new to the forum and new to wood burning. My question is what settings should the pulse "timeout and "length be for maximum efficiency. Manual doesn't give much information and neither does my dealer. At 14 minutes of "timeout" and 50 sec. for length fire will not stay lit and it seems like I am using more wood then I should but not sure. At my current settings (see below) it works fine but, again, seems like I am burring a lot of wood. So far this season Oct / Nov have used almost two cords.

Thanks for any help in advance.

1400 sq ft home well insulated
heat hot water with boiler
Wood used is Pine
In house temp settings: N=68 D=70
Current settings. Timeout = 10 min.
                            Length = 50 sec
Altitude: 7100 ft.
Attitude: TBD

[Roger2561]

Hello, I am new to the forum and new to wood burning. My question is what settings should the pulse "timeout and "length be for maximum efficiency. Manual doesn't give much information and neither does my dealer. At 14 minutes of "timeout" and 50 sec. for length fire will not stay lit and it seems like I am using more wood then I should but not sure. At my current settings (see below) it works fine but, again, seems like I am burring a lot of wood. So far this season Oct / Nov have used almost two cords.

Thanks for any help in advance.

1400 sq ft home well insulated
heat hot water with boiler
Wood used is Pine
In house temp settings: N=68 D=70
Current settings. Timeout = 10 min.
                            Length = 50 sec
Altitude: 7100 ft.
Attitude: TBD

Hi grego109;  First of all, welcome to the forum.  You'll find alot of smart people in here who are willing to share their knowledge and secrets with you. 

I too am new to the OWB scene.  I used to heat with a wood stove in the livingroom.  Before that I paid megabucks to heat my house with oil.  Not anymore.  If all goes well, I should burn no more than 8 cord this winter and this house was built somewhere around 1840's.  But, I have spent alot of money insulating it.

As for your problem.  I too used to have the same trouble when I first fired my E-classic 1400 .  The fire would go out due to the length of the idle time between burns.  The fall has been so warm that the water temp wouldn't fall off enough for the blower to turn on to reheat the water.  After posting my problems on here, reading the manual and talking to other people, I realized that I needed to change the setting from the factory settings.  So, right now, the upper setpoint for the blower to turn off is 185 with the lower setpoint set at 180 when the blower will turn on.  Plus, I incorporated the use of the pulse.  It is set to run for 30 sec every 15 minutes. I know I'll have to revisit the settings when winter fully sets in.  It important that your wood is dry.  I use a mix of hard woods, never use pine.  Perhaps that's one of the issues?  Are you keeping the air holes clear of ash and coals.  It's important to do that.  The other step I've taken is to short cycle it, meaning I put in just enough wood to last 12 hours.  This way every 12 hours gives me a chance to stay ahead of the ash depth. 

I'm no pro but I have shared with you what works for me.  Perhaps you can incorporate some of these ideas to your system.  But, you'll have to learn what works for you.  Please, report back with results, good or bad.  Roger

     

[Bull]

Welcome to the site grego109, I am sure you will get some more ideas here in a bit.

[Scott7m]

Roger gave you some great ideas to try with your settings.

Now as far as your wood, pine is very poor in the amount of btu per cord.

Your wood is only around 14 million btu per cord, compared to a good quality hardwood that is commonly 26-30 million btu per cord.

A cord of dry pine is around 21-2200 pound per cord where as oak is closer to 4400.  Twice the weight!  Twice the btu!

[Dean186]

My question is what settings should the pulse "timeout and "length be for maximum efficiency. Manual doesn't give much information and neither does my dealer. At 14 minutes of "timeout" and 50 sec. for length fire will not stay lit and it seems like I am using more wood then I should but not sure. At my current settings (see below) it works fine but, again, seems like I am burring a lot of wood. So far this season Oct / Nov have used almost two cords.

Thanks for any help in advance.

1400 sq ft home well insulated
heat hot water with boiler
Wood used is Pine
In house temp settings: N=68 D=70
Current settings. Timeout = 10 min.
                            Length = 50 sec
Altitude: 7100 ft.
Attitude: TBD

Hi Greg,

I have owned and operated my E-1400 for three years and still learning.  Here is my setup.

  4300 sq ft home well insulated  (700 square of that is shut off and kept at 50 degrees, and 1,300 square foot of that is basement)
  heat hot water with boiler
  Wood used is Ponderosa Pine & Douglas Fir
  In house temp settings: N=68 D=70
  Current settings. Timeout = 20 min.
                              Length = 55 sec
  Altitude: 7600 ft.  Rocky Mountains

Yes, very similar to yours, expect for area heated.

Wood used so far, 1 1/2 cords of pine and fir mix  (started stove Oct 10, so about 2 months - the other nights low temp was -13 degrees)

My thoughts:

Pine & fir is the only wood that is available to some of us.  It will burn fine, just keep the numbers in mind.  When we use 3 cords, it is equivalent to other hardwood users using 2 cords.  (In round numbers)

I don't believe the Idle "Pulse" Timeout and the Idle "Pulse" Length numbers will effect wood usage.  Set them to what keeps the fire from going out.

Here are some things to consider that will effect wood usage.

     1)  Quality of wood

     2)  Moisture content of wood

     3)  Length of furnace water line

     4)  Type of water line used

     5)  Installation of water line (depth, moisture around water line, additional insulation)

     6)  Heat Load:  Square footage of house and it's insulation (discussed above)

[grego109]

Thanks everyone for the assistance. My main concern was the pulse timeout and length and if adjusting these settings I would consume less wood, in-addition to being concerned about taxing the system more by my settings. Mine seems to run best at 10 (TO) and 50 (L).

By the way, pine is the only economical wood available to me in CO(all the beetle kill) at about $180-200 per cord. Hardwood gets up to around $295-350 per cord.

[NewToIt]

In theory, a cord of hardwood should last nearly twice as long as a cord of pine..... thus making it slightly more economical in the long run at the prices you gave!   Oh, not to mention, less "fill-ups".

[Dean186]

In theory, a cord of hardwood should last nearly twice as long as a cord of pine..... thus making it slightly more economical in the long run at the prices you gave!   Oh, not to mention, less "fill-ups".

I come up with different numbers from the BTU Chart:

    Oak, Red - Quercus rubra - 3,757 weight in pounds per cord - 24 mbtu

    Pine, Ponderosa - Pinus ponderosa - 2,380 weight in pounds per cord - 15.2 mbtu

    24.0/15.2 = 63.3 percent

    63.3 percent of the price of hard wood at $325/cord = $206/cord for pine  (In my area of Colorado pine is $160 per cord and oak is $300 plus)

Living here in Colorado, I have done the numbers and pine is the most economical to purchase.  In my case, I cut it from my own property.  I also have Douglas fir on the property which has better numbers (18.1).  Occasionally I have some Aspen (a not so good hardwood at 14.7).

I would much prefer my firewood to be hardwood, but we use what is available and Colorado is a great place to live.   

[NewToIt]

That may be the case..... I was going off his numbers for the price of wood and the BTU numbers from a previous post.  Now, if you are cutting your own, then it's an obvious economic choice!

[johnybcold]

Whats up all , I am filling my E1400 with water today and firing it up tomorrow morning, I agree free wood makes the best BTU's my plan is to use pine and mix it with some hard wood but pine is easier to get for free at the moment. Man installing that insulated pipe was a killer I ran it about 120ft I am in MA.

 

[johnybcold]

Man this weather is killing me, My poor e1400 has nothing to heat, my fire was out last night around 9pm so I lowered my pulse time and extended the burst.

[Roger2561]

Man this weather is killing me, My poor e1400 has nothing to heat, my fire was out last night around 9pm so I lowered my pulse time and extended the burst.

johnybcold, those changes you made should do the trick.  I agree with you comment about the weather.  It's hard to believe that it's only the end of Feb.  If one didn't know better it feels more like early April weather.  Did you get your OWB rekindled and did it keep going?  Roger

[johnybcold]

It might have gone out ( I worked until 8 :30 my wife said she had to relight it around 5 but I think it might have just needed a poke) so tonight and tomorrow will test my settings, I also was burning all pine which does not give ya much coal

[morsejh]

I had the same issue with my E1400, the fire could go out, even using dry hard wood.

I found in my case decreasing the pulse time (think it's now at 22 mins) fixed it, and I also decreased the pulse duration (30 seconds now I think) so I compensated somewhat for extra wood burn.

The main factor that drove pulse time was when the boiler had a full load and hit the set point.  I really don't find a 1/4 full boiler goes out using factory settings.